The word compassion means “to suffer with.” Compassionate people, then, are not those who merely express sentiments of care for the hurting, but rather those who step into that very hurt and sit alongside the wounded. It is quite easy to consider ourselves compassionate until we see compassion defined for the ages. Jesus left the glory of the heavens to sit in the mire of our broken world. He came to join us in all this pain. And for what purpose? It was not to prove himself compassionate. On the contrary, with disregard for his own reputation, he came to embody and minister a mysterious healing. He came to lead humanity to the shores of divinity. And to our awful surprise, divinity bore the shape of a cross.